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The Scranton Parking Authority has a deficit of $1.4 million and needs the city to pony up the cash by June 1.

Scranton City Council has the money set aside but won't release it until it gets a line-item budget and a satisfactory explanation from SPA.

At Thursday's council meeting, council members said Mayor Chris Doherty's administration wanted emergency legislation introduced that night for $1.4 million for the SPA.

But the council flatly refused to consider it until authority Executive Director Robert Scopelliti and city Business Administrator Ryan McGowan appear before the council to explain why the funds are needed. Councilman Pat Rogan and council solicitor Boyd Hughes went so far as to say SPA should be allowed to go into default.

In response, Mr. Doherty said Friday that the city backs SPA debt and the council in its 2012 budget set aside $1.6 million in a contingency fund to cover the SPA deficit.

"They (council) can't not pay it," Mr. Doherty said of the SPA deficit. "They (council) put it into their budget in the contingency fund. They have to transfer it over. They know they have to write the check. This is their budget."

Furthermore, failing to provide the funds would only lead to a bondholder lawsuit that the city would lose because it guarantees the SPA's debt, Mr. Doherty said.

Mr. Hughes said SPA bonds are insured and in the event of a default, the bond insurer would have to pay.

"If they default, they default. Let the insurance company pay," Mr. Hughes said. "It's like Chicken Little: 'The roof is falling, the roof is falling.' Let it fall."

Mr. Rogan added, "Mr. Scopelliti can come in here next week and beg - be on his knees begging - I'm not going to bail him out. Let the parking authority fail. Let the city take it back in house."

The brouhaha has been brewing since October, when the authority told the council it was expecting a $1.6 million deficit in 2012 and requested "an amount sufficient to cover the projected shortfall" be included in the city's 2012 budget and paid to the authority by June 1.

At that time, Mr. Scopelliti cited a 1969 agreement between the city and the agency under which SPA is to notify the city of anticipated deficits and the city has agreed to provide for this anticipated shortfall. The council demanded the SPA funding be placed into a contingency fund that only council could release.

Efforts to reach Mr. Scopelliti on Friday were unsuccessful.

Mr. Hughes said he had requested financial information in October from SPA but received only a "Mickey Mouse" budget. Mr. Hughes said he also had discovered last fall that SPA's budget also is supposed to be submitted to council for approval, but never had been.

The council requested Mr. Scopelliti and Mr. McGowan attend a public caucus on Thursday.

"Until that caucus is conducted, the ($1.4 million) legislation will not be placed on the agenda," council President Janet Evans said.

Contact the writer: jlockwood@timesshamrock.com

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